Various types of packaging materials are known for packaging and shipping perishable or fragile articles. In some cases a box containing an article is suspended within another package or box for protection during shipping or storage. Loose fill packaging materials may be used to space and protect the inner articles within an outer box.
Of particular interest is the efficient packaging of fragile devices or articles such that vibration and shock due to impact do not harm the device or article. This is particularly true of electronic devices, medical devices, glassware, etc. Shipping and transport of smaller articles has resulted in the formation of an industry dedicated to serving the public in this area. For instance, the United Parcel Service, Federal Express and the United States Postal Service have all evolved to fill this need.
Particularly popular is the use of “loose fill” materials such as expanded plastic beads (polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, etc.) which may be extruded and cut into a variety of shapes (peanuts, H-shaped, S-shaped, V-shaped, star-shaped, saddle-shaped, FIG. 8-shaped, etc.) which can be used to fill a void and surround an article placed inside a shipping container or box to cushion the article against damage. The loose fill provides a low weight “resilient envelope”, however, it has been found that heavier articles may wander or settle within the loose fill medium over time due to vibration during transportation. While loose fill materials may have “good pourability” for filling a void or space between an article and its container, they are particularly difficult to dispose of, as the low density and high volume provide tremendous quantities of loose beads which the consumer must deal with and which many waste management companies do not see as “recyclable”. A further disadvantage of loose fill materials is that the low density and large volume make storing and transporting the materials before use very inefficient. Other “loose-fill” materials may comprise shredded fiber board or paper, however these materials tend to settle or become compressed and are not as resilient as the aforementioned plastic foams.
Foam-in-place materials provide another option to package articles. Thermoset two-component urethane precursors may be reacted together and poured or sprayed to expand and fill an open space to provide cushioning.
Thermoplastic beads may be expanded in shaped molds to form customized sections of packaging for the protection of contents. Often these are used as “clam shell” protectors on each end of an article to “suspend” the article in a packaging container. These materials, once formed to shape, are specific to an application or shaped article and are not readily reusable for packaging other articles, particularly of other shapes. In addition, these molded sections are bulky to transport and store before use. Further, these materials are particularly difficult to dispose of due to their odd or complex shapes. In attempting to efficiently dispose of these odd shapes, the shapes are often broken into pieces causing a lot of loose dust or “fluff”.
An alternate means to provide packing materials has been to cut a block or sheet of, for instance, a foamed material to shape. That is, however an extremely wasteful process as a lot of scrap is generated from the material that is removed from the blank and usually a lot of dust or debris is generated.
“Bubble-wrap” is another type of packaging for articles, where a sheet of plastic bubbles can be wrapped around an article having a regular shape. However, the ability of “bubble-wrap” to fill irregular shaped spaces or voids is poor and, once again, disposal is difficult, unless one wants to crush all the bubbles to reduce the volume to a practical level.
In the packaging of heavy products, appliances and the like, corner and top support pads may be provided between a corner of the appliance and an outer container. These pads provide impact protection as well as stacking strength. Often these support pads are formed to shape of paper board and adhesive. They are not however generally reusable in a different configuration.
What is needed is a product which provides an easily configurable shape that may be customized to efficiently package a given article and which may be readily reusable and more easily disposed of.